After a host of new CPU coolers rolling out of Scythe's stables, the latest one in the making is the Katana III. The cooler seems to have been designed keeping the latest Core i7 and Phenom II processors in mind. It sports a strange, audacious yet familiar design: an aluminum-fin array propagating diagonally. A CPU contact block that doubles up as a small heatsink, forms are a starting-point, rather than mid-point of six copper heatpipes. These heatpipes convey heat to the fin array. This design is somewhat similar to that of the Gelid Silent-Spirit except for that the latter makes a more acute angle with the plane of the motherboard.

The cooler measures 143mm × 108mm × 94mm and weighs 495g (1.09 lbs). It makes use of a single 92mm PWM-controlled fan that rotates at speeds between 300 and 2,500 rpm to push 6.7 to 55.5 CFM of air. Accordingly, its noise levels range between 7.2 and 31.07 dBA. The Katana III is compatible with all standard desktop sockets including Intel LGA-1366, LGA-775 and AMD AM2(+)/AM3. Scythe is expected to announce this cooler soon.

Looks more like 3 heatpipes since I highly doubt they are going to cap the pipes right where the cpu makes contact with the heatsink. Also the way the pipes are oriented makes it seem they go in one side, then bend and come out the other.

[RantStart]Hope there will come some new super coolers that are much better than TRUE, the core i7 is a superhot chip!! We need new (much) better cooling to handle these new cpu´s, i have a TRUE on my 920, and im afraid of overclocking the damn thing as its already hot at stock. Also MCP temps i like 60c @ default, no way im overclocking the board until better NB cooling & cpu cooling is available. Even watercooling is useless on these chips, specially when the price is 3times or more higher than aircooling and still it only gives 2-3 c´s lower temp. Not worth it. So for all you xigmateks, thermalrights, zalmans, and Schythe´s, give us a damn cooler that is worth every penny and not cheap no innovation copied old stuff crap that has come the last 2 years in coolers?? I mean cmon, TRUE is still one of the best coolers around and its OLD?? How hard is it to improve??? Give us silent but deadly cooling, and give us it now! [/End RANT]

I actually kind of like the look of it. Im sure it cools pretty damn good too. Scythe makes some awesome coolers. I like the little extra heatsink on the bottom, Im just not sure if it will interfere with anything based on its size.

Strange but nice . I wonder how well it will perform . One thing is for sure they are tapping out the HSF for all it is worth even a V10 or V8 is just too much any more . But this one has 3 Heat pipes and a heat sink near the CPU just seems like the end is near for the Air cooler .

I wonder how older cpus kept so cool. If I recall correctly, the origional Pentium processor ran off 5v and they either didn't have heatsinks, or if they did have heatsinks they were little puny sh**s compared to today's stock cooling. Why is it that now when processors run on like 1.3v they produce obscene amounts of heat, so much that we need skyscrapers on them to keep them in safe operating temperatures?

[RantStart]Hope there will come some new super coolers that are much better than TRUE, the core i7 is a superhot chip!! We need new (much) better cooling to handle these new cpu´s, i have a TRUE on my 920, and im afraid of overclocking the damn thing as its already hot at stock. Also MCP temps i like 60c @ default, no way im overclocking the board until better NB cooling & cpu cooling is available. Even watercooling is useless on these chips, specially when the price is 3times or more higher than aircooling and still it only gives 2-3 c´s lower temp. Not worth it. So for all you xigmateks, thermalrights, zalmans, and Schythe´s, give us a damn cooler that is worth every penny and not cheap no innovation copied old stuff crap that has come the last 2 years in coolers?? I mean cmon, TRUE is still one of the best coolers around and its OLD?? How hard is it to improve??? Give us silent but deadly cooling, and give us it now! [/End RANT]

the north bridge is designed to run hot, mine was upto 107 C ... 2 degree over the max safe temp.

im assuming this HSF isnt for extream cool due to the fact the fan can spin @ 300 rpm @ 7 DB so would be nice for low noise enviroment.

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I agree, but i have never in my 25years with computers seen a NB core temp rise to 67c without NO OC, and even no LOAD?? Unbelievable to me, cause everyone said that with the memory controller out of the NB the NB should get a lot cooler?? Sounds about right?? Well id never believe that it would get so much HOTTER instead? Sure once I had the 680 sli from EVGA, and sure that chip was hot. But the only time that chip went over 60-65c was if you had a quite incredible OC on it? So im just so suprised by the amount of heat both the mobo and cpu is producing?? I mean where are the 45nm cooler chips everyone has been talking about??? For me the chips are getting hotter and hotter, I mean cmon the P4 was hot, really hot, specially the dualcore HT versions but that was to expect from a 130nm chip??? Even that chip is being cooled quite well with a TRUE nowadays??? Sorry for ranting again, just so... I dont want to say it, but I have.. So unhappy with the 920 atm, I put big bucks on the whole setup and Im afraid to even OC it coz its too damn hot??? Great performance @stock sure, but we all want to OC in the end so I hope someone of the big cooling companies will step up and make us a great NEW cooler that has some new innovation again. No crap like the liquid metal crap cooler that cost you more than a 920 cpu, and has worse performance than a TRUE?? LOL... Sorry again, now my rant is over...